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Surgery Cases and COVID-19 Testing

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Surgery Cases: The governor has lifted all restrictions on surgeries.  All types of cases will now be accepted at all surgical sites within the network

Testing:  Beginning Tuesday, May 26 for patients scheduled on Thursday, May 28 and beyond, we will begin testing for COVID-19 for any elective surgical patients receiving general anesthesia. The test requires that the patient be swabbed by 3 pm two days prior to the date of surgery in order to allow the results to be received in a timely manner.  Patients will be asked to self-isolate once the test is conducted until the day of surgery.  Patients who are scheduled less than two days prior to surgery or who do not complete the test in a timely manner will not have the screening completed prior to surgery. At this time, we will also not be conducting any day of surgery testing unless the patient is a PUI.

The process will be as follows:

  • Patient scheduled for surgery
  • PAT staff will contact the patent for their phone assessment; if the patient is an elective case scheduled to receive general anesthesia they will:
    • Advise the patient to get swabbed by 3 p.m. 2 days prior to surgery at any network freestanding emergency department, hospital emergency department, Pre-admission Testing clinic, or a site of their choice.
    • Advise the patient that they must self-isolate until day of surgery
  • Patient completes the test
    • If the patient decides not to be tested at a network facility, they may bring proof of testing within the past two days with them to the hospital. 
  • The lab will notify the Network Operations Command Center of any positive tests and the Network Operations Command Center will MatchMD the surgeon
  • The surgeon will be responsible to notify the patient and make a determination of whether to postpone or proceed with the procedure. 
  • The Network Operations Command Center will also notify Pre-admission Testing that the patient was positive and the outcome of their ability to reach the surgeon.
  • The Pre-admission Testing nurse will contact the physician’s office to confirm that they are aware of the test outcome and confirm the determination to postpone the case.  If postponed Pre-admission Testing will let the surgery department know.
  • Pre-admission Testing nurse will review all patient charts for confirmation that the test was done and resulted.  If the patient is negative, no further action will be taken.
May 21, 2020
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